Our love story, or so I like to call it, is something I only dreamed about.
I, Ronnie, grew up in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. It is a gorgeous place and I miss the beauty of it. The town where I lived was mostly a tourist attraction. There was Gore Mountain for skiing in the winter, hiking/mountain biking in the summer, along with the famous Hudson river that ran right through the middle of town. Rafters galore in the late spring and summer months. My childhood was pretty normal. I am the oldest of two. My sister, Cassie, is two years younger then me. I graduated from a small school with a class size of less then 30 in 2002. I went to a community college for two years then moved to North Carolina to be with my family. My dad took a job that was too good to pass up, so they sold our old farm house in New York and moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. I followed a year later. (North Carolina is beautiful country as well.) I lived and worked in North Carolina for a year then moved to Texas to work for Cal Farley’s Girlstown USA as an activities coordinator. It was a job that only God could have given to me. It was a wonderful place to work and it instilled in me a love for the youth and serving them in some fashion. If you are not familiar with the Cal Farley’s organizations, they are non-profit, Christ-centered, and work to reunite children and their parents or to help rebuild relationships with the child and parent. Lots of great people work with these kids and it is truly a job that you need to be called into. One set of house parents that were called into this line of work play a VERY important role in this story. They came to work at Girlstown in early 2008, maybe even late 2007. Anyway, the Rosser’s and I hit it off. Joellen Rosser (Colin’s aunt) and I became immediate friends. She has a daughter that is my age and they had all just returned from North Carolina for their wedding. Small world. So we always had something to talk about. Right before the summer really went into full swing last year, we took all the girls that were on campus to the Bottomless Lakes in New Mexico. The Rosser’s went with their girls. Joellen and I sat on the beach, working hard of course, and just talked. Soon the conversation made its way to her asking me if I was “seeing” anyone. I wasn’t, so she then told me about her great nephew that I needed to meet. Now at this point in my life I really wasn’t looking to get into a relationship with anyone. I had come to the decision that I was going to let God bring me the man he wanted me to be with. I had done things my way in all my relationships, and they always turned out the same way and I was tired of it. For a change I was going to do what God wanted me to. So as I sat on the beach with Joellen, the only real question that I could think to ask was if “he” was a Christian, and she attested that he was. AND in fact, his dad was an ordained minister. Next thought, “Great, a preacher’s kid.” J So in the end I told her that it would be neat if we could meet some day. The “God wheel” began to turn that day, I am sure of it. Over the next few weeks I prayed. I prayed that God’s will be done in whatever relationship might develop between Colin and me. At the same time, Joellen and Gwyn (Colin’s mom) were working on the sidelines. Joellen had emailed some pictures of me to Gwyn, and they got the “mom approval”, or so I was told later on. If had been a few weeks since the beach talk, and I still continued to pray that God would do His thing, whatever that might be. Then I got an email from Jo and she told me that he wanted my email. And that is where it all began! I got back from being at church camp for a week with close to 40 girls and I had received my first email from Colin. Due to the lack of sleep and everything else that comes with chasing girls around for five days, I was exhausted! It took me close to two hours to reply. That was the start. Then the phone calls started, with that came a $700.00 cell phone bill, sorry about that Colin. We decided to meet in August. So I met him at his parents house for a weeknd trip. It was three hour drive and a two hour one for him. So we just kind of met in the middle. I can honestly say that up to that point it was the best weekend of my life. I was so nervous when I met him for the first time, but was excited at how easy it was to be around him. We drove around San Angelo and just talked. I can still remember sitting at a stop light and telling him that I had prayed about our relationship for a long time, and was floored when he responded with “Me too.” We talked openly about our faith and beliefs and our thoughts on children and childrearing. I think it was right there that I fell in love with him. I was so impressed that the entire weekend Colin never once crossed any sort of boundaries. He hugged me when I left and that was it. To be honest, I was scared that it meant that he didn’t really like me, but an hour later I found that not to be true. On my way home he call several times just to check on me and to make sure I was doing ok driving. We both admitted that it was a great and wonderful weekend and planned another one. The
third time we were together we confessed our love, then by the fourth “get together” we were engaged! This was the end of September and we were married on December 27th, 2008. It has been nothing short of the greatest adventure I have ever set forth on. I grow more and more in love with Colin everyday. People are right when they say that everything changes when you get married. It is sooo much better! Being married is truly a gift from God. I believe it is just another way for Him to show us just how much he loves us. Loving Colin is the easiest choice that I get to make every day.
I, Ronnie, grew up in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. It is a gorgeous place and I miss the beauty of it. The town where I lived was mostly a tourist attraction. There was Gore Mountain for skiing in the winter, hiking/mountain biking in the summer, along with the famous Hudson river that ran right through the middle of town. Rafters galore in the late spring and summer months. My childhood was pretty normal. I am the oldest of two. My sister, Cassie, is two years younger then me. I graduated from a small school with a class size of less then 30 in 2002. I went to a community college for two years then moved to North Carolina to be with my family. My dad took a job that was too good to pass up, so they sold our old farm house in New York and moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. I followed a year later. (North Carolina is beautiful country as well.) I lived and worked in North Carolina for a year then moved to Texas to work for Cal Farley’s Girlstown USA as an activities coordinator. It was a job that only God could have given to me. It was a wonderful place to work and it instilled in me a love for the youth and serving them in some fashion. If you are not familiar with the Cal Farley’s organizations, they are non-profit, Christ-centered, and work to reunite children and their parents or to help rebuild relationships with the child and parent. Lots of great people work with these kids and it is truly a job that you need to be called into. One set of house parents that were called into this line of work play a VERY important role in this story. They came to work at Girlstown in early 2008, maybe even late 2007. Anyway, the Rosser’s and I hit it off. Joellen Rosser (Colin’s aunt) and I became immediate friends. She has a daughter that is my age and they had all just returned from North Carolina for their wedding. Small world. So we always had something to talk about. Right before the summer really went into full swing last year, we took all the girls that were on campus to the Bottomless Lakes in New Mexico. The Rosser’s went with their girls. Joellen and I sat on the beach, working hard of course, and just talked. Soon the conversation made its way to her asking me if I was “seeing” anyone. I wasn’t, so she then told me about her great nephew that I needed to meet. Now at this point in my life I really wasn’t looking to get into a relationship with anyone. I had come to the decision that I was going to let God bring me the man he wanted me to be with. I had done things my way in all my relationships, and they always turned out the same way and I was tired of it. For a change I was going to do what God wanted me to. So as I sat on the beach with Joellen, the only real question that I could think to ask was if “he” was a Christian, and she attested that he was. AND in fact, his dad was an ordained minister. Next thought, “Great, a preacher’s kid.” J So in the end I told her that it would be neat if we could meet some day. The “God wheel” began to turn that day, I am sure of it. Over the next few weeks I prayed. I prayed that God’s will be done in whatever relationship might develop between Colin and me. At the same time, Joellen and Gwyn (Colin’s mom) were working on the sidelines. Joellen had emailed some pictures of me to Gwyn, and they got the “mom approval”, or so I was told later on. If had been a few weeks since the beach talk, and I still continued to pray that God would do His thing, whatever that might be. Then I got an email from Jo and she told me that he wanted my email. And that is where it all began! I got back from being at church camp for a week with close to 40 girls and I had received my first email from Colin. Due to the lack of sleep and everything else that comes with chasing girls around for five days, I was exhausted! It took me close to two hours to reply. That was the start. Then the phone calls started, with that came a $700.00 cell phone bill, sorry about that Colin. We decided to meet in August. So I met him at his parents house for a weeknd trip. It was three hour drive and a two hour one for him. So we just kind of met in the middle. I can honestly say that up to that point it was the best weekend of my life. I was so nervous when I met him for the first time, but was excited at how easy it was to be around him. We drove around San Angelo and just talked. I can still remember sitting at a stop light and telling him that I had prayed about our relationship for a long time, and was floored when he responded with “Me too.” We talked openly about our faith and beliefs and our thoughts on children and childrearing. I think it was right there that I fell in love with him. I was so impressed that the entire weekend Colin never once crossed any sort of boundaries. He hugged me when I left and that was it. To be honest, I was scared that it meant that he didn’t really like me, but an hour later I found that not to be true. On my way home he call several times just to check on me and to make sure I was doing ok driving. We both admitted that it was a great and wonderful weekend and planned another one. The
third time we were together we confessed our love, then by the fourth “get together” we were engaged! This was the end of September and we were married on December 27th, 2008. It has been nothing short of the greatest adventure I have ever set forth on. I grow more and more in love with Colin everyday. People are right when they say that everything changes when you get married. It is sooo much better! Being married is truly a gift from God. I believe it is just another way for Him to show us just how much he loves us. Loving Colin is the easiest choice that I get to make every day.
Makes me cry every time. Love you both!!!
ReplyDeleteYall are tooooo cute. I miss you though. Come visit soon!!!
ReplyDeletethis is Joellen: I will add that God is the one that put you together. God is good. Karely would like to say hi,and that she loves you both.
ReplyDelete